It's a joy being here with you again. I think it's been a few years since we've been here visiting with you. I'm not sure it was in a morning or evening or all day, but we just are so thankful that the Lord has brought us back here again. And he's done some wonderful things for us. We have been serving the Lord in Russia for ten years in country, coming back from year to year. for a little furlough because we've been required to by the laws of russia we had to get a new visa every time every year and uh this to last december twenty third when we went back again to go back into the country uh we went london st petersburg there and uh my wife and my son went through customs without any problems their paperwork was accepted when i went through they said uh let's see your visa here just wait just for a few minutes and few minutes took longer and it took longer and finally they came and they said to me they said you're not allowed to come back in Russia your visa is no good and of course the first question I would ask that I asked and you would ask as well I'm sure if that happened to you it's because the same feeling that you get when you are driving those of you who drive and a police car With his lights on, pulls you over. You say, uh-oh, what have I done? You know, I wasn't speeding. I wasn't doing this. I wasn't doing that. And just all these thoughts go through your mind. You know exactly how I felt. You know exactly how you felt. Because you've been there too. Only on this side of the big pond. So they said, well, we can't tell you. How would you like that? If a policeman came up to your window and said, ma'am, may I see his driver's license? Sir, may I see his driver's license. He said, well, what was I doing? And he says, I can't tell you. That's sort of frustrating, isn't it? Well, why did you pull me over if you can't tell me? Well, the next thing I said, could I have your name? He said, I can't give you my name. That would be so. Oh, my goodness. What is going on? The uncertainty and the fear that was there. Well, the Lord had his reasons and his purposes. And my wife and my son were on the other side. And it's one of the times when I was very thankful. Let's be thankful for a cough. He's very, very thankful for sickness because sometimes God can use that to be a real encouragement to other people. My son had a bad cough and he hadn't gotten over it yet. But see, he was on the other side of those doors that was separating from me and my wife and my son. And I had no idea where they were or what happened to them. Only occasionally I would hear, I said, Lord, keep them coughing, please. I'm out of control in this situation. And I don't know what's happened to them, but keep them coughing. At least I know they're within my sound. And I got bad ears. So the Lord did that. And anyway, he brought us back. And I'll tell you more about that. There's so much to share. But God has been doing some wonderful things for us since he's brought us back. And the timing has been just absolutely unbelievable. And we were invited to come to work with the believers in Parkway. And one of the brethren there said to us, he wrote us a personal note. And he said, please, by all means, he said, if you can come. He said, there's an apartment right next to me. I'd love to have you come and stay at the apartment. The Lord opened up the door for us to do that. And he said, I hear you and your wife go for a walk every morning. He said, I want to join you. And some of you know who that fellow is. His name is Mr. Clarence Lowe. And he said, please. give my regards to the folks at Northgate. He says, I know many of them very, very well. And so I give you greetings from him. And just praise the Lord, he's doing well. And yes, he walks every morning when he gets a chance to. He walks for about thirty minutes and have good times of fellowship and tells us all sorts of neat stories, which is interesting. But tonight we want to focus on what the Lord has been doing in Russia since we've been there since the last time that I was shared with you. We have some slides and also what the Lord is doing in reference to us in the Left Behind series. It's what we've left behind in Russia and what God is doing now. He's still doing some exciting things that he's let us know. He still wants us to work, but from this side in that great land. So we ask that you will just pray for us that the Lord will continue giving us direction. Jason Angela, our son and daughter-in-law, who When we were here before, they were not married. But since then, they met at a missionary conference at CMML, a missionary conference in Cleveland Hills. And as a result of that meeting, they later on got married. And they followed dad, mom's footsteps and came to Russia as missionaries and worked to serve the Lord there for a couple of years. But now they're sort of stuck back here. And they came home in furlough. They have not been rejected or turned away. Just their visas ran out. and now they're having some difficulties getting back in. So pray for that they would be able to do that. That's what God wants. As I said, we'll share more of that with you tonight and then perhaps give you some opportunities to ask questions. But for this morning, if we could just turn our Bible to Hebrews chapter four, we'd like to look at verses of scripture there and then some other verses later on. We have a a big subject to cover this morning. And I'm just going to give you hopefully the bones, the outline, the subject with some scripture verses because it's just too much for us to take in one evening, one morning rather. And I hope it will encourage you to get to know the author of this book, God Himself and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter four in verse twelve. For the word of God is quick, that's living. We were singing about that, wasn't it? It's not by accident. I didn't ask our brother to pick out that song because he lives. It just ties right in with this, doesn't it? For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and of marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Shall we just look to the Lord again once more? Our Father, we thank you so much for your word and the power of it and the preeminence you've given it to us that you have given to it in your own scope and plan of things. And thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the word in flesh and came to live on this earth so that people could know him personally and went back to heaven after he died on the cross and came to do his father's will and paying for our sins and suffering there in such a terrible way on the cross. now he's back in heaven and he has sent his spirit again father with the word with your word to to encourage our hearts and to direct convict the world of sin and of righteousness and judgment to come we pray that that will take place even this morning that your word will do those things by the power of the holy spirit and may everything that is said today bring you much honor and glory anything that's not that's done outside of the spirit of god may be forgotten or not even said we just commit this time into your hands is very precious, Father. And we pray that this time would bring much fruit for eternity, some thirty, some sixty, some even a hundredfold because of the Word of God sinking deep into the hearts of each one here, including myself. In Jesus' name, I pray and thank you. Amen. The Word of God. A very powerful book. That's the subject this morning I want to share. The Word of God. The Word of God. It's a very special book. I've broken down our little talk this morning into five different sections. And I hope that as a result of this morning's message, that you'll be able to remember each of these sections because it's going to be an acrostic of the word Bible, B-I-B-L-E. And I'll do each one there. Hopefully it will help us remember what God's word is. First of all, the Bible. is the book of all books. The word Bible, by the way, by the way, simply means book. The book. Some time ago in advertising here in the United States, Yellow Pages came out with advertising as this is the book. This is the book you want to get to find anything that you want to help you with any kind of situation, purchase anything that you want, get your car repaired or anything. This is the book, the Yellow Pages. Well, there's a book that's even more important than that. and that is the Word of God. It is the book of books. It's more important than any other book in the world. There are many reasons why it's more important than any other book in the world, but I would just like to talk about four of them. Four reasons why it's more important than any other book in the world. It's the only book that is perfect. It is perfect. Let's turn our Bibles to Proverbs chapter thirty in verse five. Proverbs chapter thirty in verse five. You can tell that I need to come here more often so I can have exercise and doing sword drills. probably some of you have gotten in already proverbs thirty in verse five says this every word of god is pure he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him and now again i would like to take this word pure and break it down into four different sections again the crostic not of bible this time but of pure the word of god is first of all perfect it's pure and that is powerful it's god's voice that speaks without any error. There's no other book in the world that's without error. And so it's a very powerful book. The scriptures tells us that God's word does three things. Does many things. But Genesis chapter one, verses one to three, we read that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void. And then we read that God said, let there be light, and it was light. this book that you hold in your hands the words within this book is so powerful that it is created the world in which we live in that's how powerful this book is it's not just an ordinary book it's a very special book it's God's word it's powerful not only has it did it to create the world Genesis chapter one and verse one and three and also you can look up look up in verse Hebrews chapter eleven verse three that's what he did in the past but God's word also holds the world together. God's word holds the world together. Let's turn to the book of Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. And verse three. Talking about the Lord Jesus in verse two, half his God verse one. Verse two, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath pointed air of all things, by whom also he made the world, as the verse I referred to a little while ago, who being in the brightness of his glory and expressed his image of his son, and upholding all things by the word of his power, that when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Second thing that God's word does is it upholds the world. It keeps the world together. Why do you think we haven't had a tremendous explosion already of nuclear arms? Why do you think Russia and North Korea and China and Iraq and some of these other countries that have had nuclear capabilities or we think may have nuclear capabilities hasn't blown the world up yet? Why hasn't some madman come over and destroyed the United States so easily could have happened? The reason why is because God's word is holding this world together. He's putting a restraining force upon that. God's word is powerful. Not only has he created the world, but he also holds the world together. And then one day we read in the future, Second Peter, if we just go over to the next book there, Hebrews, James, and the next two books. Second Peter, chapter three, and verse seven. We read these words. Five through seven. Second Peter, chapter three, verses five through seven. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. The word of God will also destroy the world at some time. It will be the word of God that will destroy the world. God's word, the book that we hold in our hands, the book that we're looking at this morning, the book that you're studying so much, so much a part of your assembly here, which is tremendous, that word will one day destroy the world. It's a powerful book. It's a powerful book. The word of God is not only powerful, but the next letter in pure is you, unique. The word of God is unique. Second Timothy, chapter three, verses sixteen and seventeen second Timothy chapter three verses sixteen and seventeen this book here is a unique book all scripture is given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be perfect through thoroughly furnished unto all good works it is profitable for living this is the only book that we can take and we can use it in every aspect of our lives every single part no matter what kind of a job you have no matter what kind of marital situation you're in whether you're single or married or divorced whatever God has a word for you in this book and he wants you to go by it and it's profitable for you very simple way that I came across this under way to understand this some time ago was this, is that God's word is profitable in telling us how to live. That's doctrine. The second one, and for proof. It tells us how to walk the right way, how to please God. But then when we get off, it says, uh-oh, now you need to be corrected in this area of your life. And the third thing, not only does it tell us where we went wrong, but it tells us how to get back on the road, correction. And then the last part for instruction and righteousness, the Word of God tells us how to stay on the right road, how to keep going for him. It's a wonderful book. It's a powerful book, the Word of God. So the Word of God, it's a book of books, is not only powerful and is unique, profitable for living, but it's also very penetrating. The verse that we read, Hebrews chapter four and verse twelve, tells us that not only does the Word of God help us in our outside daily life, but also is very convicting on the inside of us as well. God's word speaks to us. And what does it do? Sharper than a two-edged sword. It convicts us. The reason why it says sharper than a two-edged sword is because the sword can only go into our bodies. It can only pierce our skin and strike our vital organs and, yes, could even kill us. But it cannot affect our soul. A sword cannot affect our soul. But God's word does that. And it comes in, comes into our hearts, and it convinces us where we need to make some changes in our lives. That's the reason why it's so powerful. It's able to do that. It divides the soul and the spirit. Let's talk about that a minute. What does it mean to divide the soul and the spirit? When we read God's word and he speaks to us, in our soul, we say, Lord, I know what you're saying to me, but I don't feel like doing that. It's just too convicting for me. Divide the soul and the spirit. See, the soul is a part of us that does the feeling. The spirit part of us is the part that God speaks to us through. And it will separate the spirit and the soul to where now we have to make a choice. What are we going to do? You may be here this morning. You don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. But God's Spirit is speaking to you. Perhaps he even begins speaking to you already. But the need in your life that you need to become a Christian. You need to join God's family. You need to trust Christ as your Savior. And you might be sitting here. Yeah, in fact, I know. I know this for a fact. I know the Spirit of God is here, and I know He is speaking. He's speaking through His Word. Maybe He's speaking through something that's going through your mind right now. And you might say, I'm not going to listen. There's just an indication right there of the division between the soul and the Spirit. The Spirit of God is saying, I have something very important to say to you, and you say, I'm not going to listen. Or you might be saying, yes, I want to listen. I want to know what you have to say to me, Lord. I'm willing for you to say anything, and I'll listen, and I'll obey that. So the sword of the spirit divides the soul and spirit in our own personal lives. And then also penetrates us. It's a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart. That goes even deeper than the soul and the spirit because it goes into our thoughts and even deeper than our thoughts. It goes to our intents. Now our thoughts are things that we think in our mind. A lot of times we don't say anything to anybody. We're just thinking about them. Maybe we're are interested in purchasing some property. Our interest is going on a vacation. We've got interest in themselves. These thoughts come into our mind. But thoughts and intents of the heart is this. These are just thoughts that come into our minds is what we think. The thoughts come from either us. Sometimes Satan puts thoughts in our mind. Sometimes the Holy Spirit puts thoughts into our minds. And these are all of these thoughts. And then it talks about there's a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart. The intents is what you really want to do, the desires that you have, that you want to see accomplished in your life, the things that will make you the very happiest. Those are the intents of your heart, what your goal is in life. Those are the intents of your heart. The God and the Word of God comes in and he knows, the Spirit of God knows what your intents are, what your thoughts are, where your soul and your spirit are. God's Word is very, very powerful. Not only is it unique in these two areas, but it's also redemptive. The Word of God is redemptive. It's redemptive in the fact that it's personal. Romans chapter three and verse twenty-three. Let's turn there. Romans three twenty-three tells us, for all have sinned to come short. of the glory of God. The first thing that God's redeeming love tells us is that we are sinners. That we are sinners. We're separated from God. And it says that all of us have sinned. There's no exception at all. All of us are sinners. And that's the first part of redemption, and let us know that we're lost. Folks, you can't be saved unless you're lost. Can't be found unless you're lost. And I'm one who tell you from personal experience, I get lost a lot. That's the reason why I carry a lot of tracks with me when I go. So that every time I ask somebody for help, I can give them a gospel track. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I get lost. And people have to tell me how to get here or there or whatever. But Brother Mark Hartley gave me good directions the other day and told me how to get here so I didn't get lost coming here. And I sure hope that as a result of here, that today, that you will see God's Word as a roadmap to help you. If you're lost today, you don't know where you're going. Well, I know where I'm going. I'm going home and I have lunch. No, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about different kinds of loss. How do you answer this question? If you were to die today, do you know where you would go? If you don't know the answer to that question, if you're not sure that you're going to be with God in heaven, if you're not sure that you go to heaven, you are lost because you don't know where you're going. But God's Word tells us how we can know for sure that we're going to heaven. These things that are written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you might know that you have eternal life. that believing you might have life through his name. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. If you don't believe in him, you're going to perish. Should not perish, but have everlasting life. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll have eternal life. So the Word of God is powerful, it's unique, it's redemptive. And the fact that it's personal, it tells us about sins. The Word of God tells us about a Savior. First Timothy chapter one, verse fifteen. The Apostle Paul writes these words, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. The Apostle Paul said he was the chiefest of sinners and the terrible things that he did before he came to know Christ as Savior. He said, I'm the chiefest of sinners and God is able to save everyone. anyone who will come to him. He, so the Word of God is redemptive in that it tells us about our sin, tells us about a Savior, and it also tells us about salvation. It tells us very clearly how we can come to know Christ as Savior and know for sure that we're going to heaven when we die. Romans chapter ten. The same book right where you are, let's turn there, Romans chapter ten. These are verses which probably many people, many of you have memorized. Romans chapter ten, verses nine and ten. But this tells you how you can come to know Christ. Though you may have heard it many times, I would encourage you, if you haven't trusted Christ yet, if you haven't done this yet, that you do it today. You can even do it while I'm speaking, trusting Christ, inviting him into your life. Verse nine, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Excuse me. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Very simple. Very clear. Believe in your heart the Lord Jesus. That Jesus is Lord. That he is the boss. That he is the ruler. He's the creator of this world. That he's the savior for you. Believe in your heart the Lord Jesus. And confess with your mouth. Believe that God has raised him from the dead. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised from the dead. Thou shall be saved. The word of God is not only powerful, unique, and redemptive, but it is also exalted. Psalm one thirty eight in verse two. Let's look there. Psalm, chapter, one, thirty-eight, verse two. David says, I will praise thee with my whole heart. Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. Verse one, I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. It is preeminent. It's exalted. God has put his word above his name. That's awesome when you stop and think about it. God has submitted himself to his word. What he says he will do. That's what the purity of God's word is all about. It's powerful. It's unique. It's redemptive. And it's exalted. We're going to have to bow our knees to the Lord Jesus Christ one day. And also to his word. He has magnified his word above all his name. I hope that as a result of the message this morning that we'll walk away with a new appreciation of this book that we hold in our hands. Some time ago I was watching a video tape of the life of the apostles after the Lord Jesus went back to heaven. There was a picture there of the apostle Paul preaching and Peter and men standing around listening as Paul was preaching. And the thought just struck me very forcibly. Here was a man that was preaching And he didn't have a Bible in his hands. I said, I grew up in church. I grew up with the Bible. And it's hard for me to understand how anybody could be preaching without having a Bible in his hands. But when you think about what the early church was and who they were, they didn't have Bibles. They didn't even have the Old Testament that they could carry around with them. If you wanted the Old Testament, you went to the Jewish synagogue and you listened to what was being read or was being taught from the synagogue. And that was it, except for maybe what your father or mother had taught you and taught you to memorize on your own. But that was it. They didn't have the word of God. We are very privileged. I mean, we are very privileged to have a copy of God's mind and his thoughts and the word of God in our hands. It's a very powerful book. Let's go to the second point of Bible. We've talked about the first one. The book of books. I. It's indestructible. Jeremiah chapter thirty-six verses twenty-seven to thirty-one. Jeremiah. chapter thirty six twenty seven verse twenty seven to thirty one then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after that the king had burned the roll and the words which Barak wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah saying take thee again another roll and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned and thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah thus saith the Lord thou hast burned this role saying why has thou written there why has thou written therein saying the king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah he shall have none to sit upon the throne of David and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity. And I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they hearken not. Verse thirty-two, then Jeremiah took another role and gave it to Barak the scribe, the son of Nero. who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire. And they were added besides unto them many like words. The word of God is indestructible. You can't burn it and destroy it because God has ways of seeing that the word of God is reproduced again and again and again and again. You cannot destroy God's word by burning. This is an example of how a man tried. to take God's word and burn it and destroy it. And the guy says, no, it's not going to happen. In fact, because you burn it, you're going to suffer as a result of that. But that's not going to change my word at all. God's word is indestructible in it by another way. Hosea chapter four in verse six. Ozaiah chapter four, verse six. The Lord is speaking through Isaiah to the people of Israel. He says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no more priests to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God. I will also forget thy children. You cannot destroy God's word by forgetting it. It's still going to be powerful. It's still going to do what God intended for it to do. Cannot destroy God's word. It's indestructible by fire, by forgetfulness, and then Numbers chapter twenty-three. And by the way, these are ways that people are choosing today to handle God's word. They're trying to destroy it, get it out of their home, one way or another. Perhaps burning it. In Russia, when we've given out Theses of literature, at times we've seen people take it. And they've seen it, sad to say, same thing has happened here in the United States. People will take it and they'll rip it up and throw it on the ground. Heard an awesome story this morning about a young man in Vietnam who was in prison during the Vietnam War. And his job was to clean out the latrines as a prisoner of war. and he saw a little piece of paper in all of the garbage that he was taking out and he said I wonder if that's English because this man knew both Vietnamese and English and he found out it was not only English but it was part of God's Word and he washed the piece of paper off and he read it and his whole life was changed as a result of God's Word very powerful testimony of how a person's life has changed through God's Word so there in Numbers chapter twenty three verses nineteen and twenty we read these words God is not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good behold I have received commandment to bless and he hath blessed and I cannot reverse it Baelim is talking here. He was paid to curse God's people. And God says, you're only going to speak what I tell you to Baelim. And Baelim told this man, his king, that of Moab, Baelic, who offered him a lot of money, he said, if you just curse God's people, I'll pay you a lot of money. And Baelim says, well, let me go see and talk with the Lord about this thing. So he did. And the Lord gave him this answer. And Baelic, Balem insisted on trying to curse God's people and doing it his own way. But every time you open his mouth, you think the blessing came out, the cursing came out to be a blessing on God's people. You cannot destroy God's word by finances. You can't pay to have God's word distorted or destroyed. So that's the second part of the word Bible. It's a book of books. It's indestructible. And then thirdly, it's basic. It's necessary for each one of us. The word of God is necessary for each one of us, for our body, For our soul and for our spirit. Matthew chapter four. We cannot live without it. If we do, we will die. And the Lord Jesus demonstrated this when he was here on earth in the book of Matthew. Matthew, Mark, and I think Luke as well gives the account of what happened here to the Lord Jesus just at the beginning of his earthly ministry. Matthew chapter four. Verses three and four. When the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But the Lord Jesus answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. People are dying physically for lack of physical bread because they don't know or they're not following the principles of God's word. The way people get bread without following principles of God's word is they will steal it or they'll do anything that they can to get it for food. But if you follow the principles of God's word, you find out that they'll be able to live and succeed. People who don't follow the principles of God's word, even though it might seem that they're successful at the beginning, they wind up in trouble very fast and very quickly because they do not read God's word. God's word will save them physically. If you're having problems, difficulties with your finances, or with anything in your life. God's word has the answer to it if you just read it. He has the answer to it. And he will provide in tremendous ways for you if you will allow him to. He provides for our body. Not only does he provide for our bodies, but he provides for our soul. Jeremiah chapter fifteen and verse sixteen. Jeremiah chapter fifteen. In verse sixteen. Jeremiah says, Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and the word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. When you feel down in the dumps, when you've had a bad day, when things are looking terrible, I would encourage you to open up God's word and begin reading it. In Russia, we distributed lots of types of literature. One of the kinds of literature we described was a little white square Bible. Now, it was called a little Bible. It was not the whole Bible, of course, but it was just a selection of salvation verses, basically, that we gave out in Russia to the people. And people really like that because it's very small, very compact. And I think you have the same here. Some of you may have seen it. It's called a little red Bible, I think, with scripture verses in it, about an inch by inch size. We were giving those out, and lots of people enjoyed them. And one day is that we were giving out this little Bible on the tram there in Russia. A lady, as I was giving this out, a lady pulls out her purse. And I thought, well, she's going to want to pay for it because people in Russia, they are very concerned about that, very appreciative when they feel I was to pray, that when they find out it's a gift. But sometimes they want to pay you for it. So I thought maybe she wanted to pay me for it. It's going to say, no, no, no, it's free. It's Platinum. It's Podartic. It's the word for free. And she don't know. She insisted. She pulled out this little white Bible, a sample of what I just gave, what I was going to give to her. And she said to me, she said, I want you to know that somebody gave my husband one of this, this, this little booklet. And he brought it home and he read it every day. And he says, when he read it, it made the difference in his day. His whole day went by a lot better. And he realized that. So he would read it the next day. And he read it the next day. And the next day. Just the day the activities went by a whole lot better. Just because he read this little booklet. And she said just last week my husband died. And she said I want to thank you for giving my husband this little booklet. And it means a lot to me. To see the change in his life. I don't know if he ever trusted Christ, the Savior or not. But God's word was powerful enough to change the circumstances in his life. Just by the reading of God's word. God's word is powerful. It's basic to our bodies, basic to our souls, basic to our spirits. John chapter six. We need God's word. We need it to be a part of our lives every day. John chapter six, the Lord Jesus speaks these words in verse sixty three. He says, but it is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. They are life. God's words is the spirit. God's word is the life. And he wants, if you're here this morning and you have invited, you have not invited the Lord Jesus into your life. He's standing at your heart still right now. And he's saying, can I come in? He's knocking. the opportunity is there right now for you to say yes please come in because he says i want to give you life i want to give you life abundantly so wonderful the life that he has to offer if you'll just invite him he wants to give you eternal life so wonderful that he wants that he has to give to you so we see that the bible is basic it's needed for the body for the soul and for the spirit and then l b-i-b-l-e the book of books It's indestructible. It's basic to the body, soul, and spirit. And then it is life changing. Second Corinthians chapter five and verse seventeen. All of these are verses you probably have memorized. Some of you, some of you might be the first time you've seen these, but they're so important it doesn't hurt to read them again. Second Corinthians chapter five and verse seventeen. Therefore, as any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. The word of God changes people's lives. And a better translation may be there in verse seventeen. All things are in the process of becoming new. Not only becoming, not have become new, but also in the process of becoming new. And I would encourage you. As you read God's word from day to day, you will find, you will see things, you will see new things in God's word. That's what this newness is talking about. He is revealing himself more and more and more to you. And he has so much that he wants to share with us. He has given himself. God has given himself to us through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's given everything to us because he wants to share himself with us. He wants us to have a relationship with him. But he cannot because of sin. and that sin burial must be removed. And so He's even provided a way of salvation for that to happen. And that's through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's life-changing. It changes a person from being a sinner to a saint or sinner saved by grace. It changes a person from being a saint to that of being like the Savior. Second Corinthians chapter three, verse eighteen. Let's just turn back a couple pages. This is phenomenal. If you ever get a hold of the truth of this, I believe, that your life will be changed forever as a believer as it was mine first second Corinthians chapter three verse eighteen but we all with an open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of God what's he talking about looking into a glass the glory of the Lord As you are reading it, you are looking into the glass. The glass is the word of God, the mirror, because God reflects back to you himself. He is standing as it were behind you. And he's looking into the mirror. And as you read God's word in this mirror here, you see him. And he changes you. As you are looking into God's word, as you're reading it, he is changing you. It's a process that's going on. And he's changing you to what? He's changing you to become like himself. like the Lord Jesus Christ as you look into his word it changes you it's a living book and then last of all it's an eternal book it's the book of books it's an indestructible book it's a basic book it's a life-changing book and it's an eternal book three times in the gospel these words are recorded Matthew chapter twenty four and verse thirty five we won't look them up but it's also Mark chapter thirteen verse thirty one in Luke chapter twenty one verse thirty three the Lord Jesus says heaven and earth shall pass away by my word shall never pass away this is an eternal book it's going to last forever and ever and ever you know one of the things I believe is going to happen when we get to heaven Lord's going to say it he's going to say okay take your Bibles we're going to look for the same word in all these verses well he might not say that but he's going to say look right here and our hearts are going to burn it well how come I never saw that before It's because our eyes were clouded. Our eyes were blinded to those things. And we're going to see more and more things that are just beautiful about the Lord Jesus and about his place in heaven for us. It is an eternal book. It's a fantastic book. Our challenge this morning, I would just like to leave you with these verses. Brother Mark Hartley prayed them in his prayer this morning when he was opening up in James chapter one. James chapter one. James chapter one verses twenty two to twenty five but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only verse twenty two deceiving your own selves for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass for a bullet behold of himself and goeth his way this is the key this is a key the key to the whole passage here I believe is found in this verse he looks and he goes his way in a few minutes we're all going to be going our way Our own way. And it's up to us what we're going to do with what we've heard this morning. Now, this is talking about a man who is a hero of the word and not a doer. Let's go on. And straightway forgetth what manner of man he was. The Spirit of God is speaking to you this morning and he's telling you what kind of a person you are and what the changes that need to be made in your life. Perhaps in relation to God's word. I hope that's what it is. or perhaps in your relation to the Lord Jesus Christ as whether he's going to be your Savior or not. It is so easy for you to leave God's word from looking into it from this place and go and forget. Because there are many other things that need to be taken care of today and the rest of your life.